From January 1 around the world to Lunar New Year in East Asia, Nowruz across Central Asia, and the solar New Year for many South and Southeast Asian communities, the first few months of 2018 have been a time for new beginnings.

At PCHC-MoM, we kicked off the year by welcoming new Directors on to the Board, seeing Winnie transition into a new role as our Executive Director, and moving into a new office.

We’ve also been hard at work creating new resources for teachers: in addition to developing a Cantonese Opera Museum Bento for use in schools, we are working with the team behind the award-winning documentary All Our Father’s Relations to demonstrate how educators can use this film as a learning tool. These will be launched and tested at our events in April, May and June. We hope to see you there!

Editor:
Lillienne Zen
Communications Coordinator

Message from the President

Dear Members, Friends and Volunteers,

I’m honoured to be writing to you as the new President of the PCHC-MoM Society following the completion of both Harb and Winnie’s terms in leading our Board. I’m very glad to share that, while no longer Directors, Harb and Winnie continue to lend their energy, efforts and expertise towards our vision of creating a museum of migration for Pacific Canada.

I’d like to take this moment to thank Harb, Winnie and Brad for their contributions as Directors and to welcome two new Board members: Henry Yu has rejoined us after his sabbatical year and we’re delighted to have Connie Baxter join us for the first time (profile below). Together, all of us on the Board will continue to implement organizational infrastructure, pursue our goal of a physical museum, and create engaging, innovative events for people of all cultures and ages.

We want to thank everyone who has ever attended or volunteered for one of our events. Our volunteers are the backbone of our organization and we couldn’t do it without you! Special thanks go to George, Richard and all those who helped us put on our inaugural Gala last November—because of you, we were able to create a memorable evening which truly represented the intergenerational, intercultural and collaborative nature of PCHC-MoM and firmly placed us in the public eye.

We look forward to seeing you at our other events in 2018.

Sincerely,
Tineke Hellwig

Introducing Honorary Advisor
Mrs. Tama Copithorne

Tama Copithorne’s migration story started from Japan as the first Keio-UBC exchange student on a WUSC scholarship. In 1962 she obtained an M.A. in Social Anthropology and Southeast Asian Studies from Yale, and lived in many countries as a diplomat’s wife. On one of those overseas postings, the family experienced China during the Cultural Revolution. By the time her husband retired from the Canadian Foreign Service to teach international law at UBC, Tama became the Founding Director of Japanese Culture and Communication at the David Lam Centre for International Communication at Simon Fraser University.

Tama has worked studiously through art and language to build bridges between peoples and countries, serving as board member or advisor in various international and pan-Asian organizations. She is also the instigator of a few memorable art projects, including having Joy Kogawa’s Naomi’s Tree recreated in fibre art by a group of women in Japan.Tama believes in learning from others by listening, and creating a new world together. To her, creating a Museum of Migration to focus on the diverse peoples in Pacific Canada is part of Canada’s continuing process of nation building.

Director Spotlight: Connie Baxter

Connie Baxter is a heritage and culture consultant with over 30 years’ experience, including positions in Alberta, the Museum of Anthropology, the Gulf of Georgia Cannery Society, and the Richmond Museum. Ever since her first encounter as an undergraduate student with historic costumes and cross-cultural textiles from Saskatchewan and Ghana, she has been fascinated by both the diversity and commonality of human cultures.

She is excited to bring her deep, practical knowledge of museum and heritage operations to PCHC-MoM as the newest addition to our Board of Directors.

Volunteer Spotlight: Caroline Ng

Caroline Ng was honoured at our AGM in December 2017, having been selected by our Volunteer Coordinator Chun-Li Yang and the Board of Directors as “Volunteer of the Year”. A published poet, writer, editor, translator, carpenter, bagpiper and photographer, Caroline has faithfully documented the growth of PCHC-MoM with her camera at many of our events since our Inaugural Symposium in 2013. Her contributions also include "A Banquet of Stories" in 2015, “Multi Voices One Heart” trans-Pacific events, and the inaugural Gala in 2017.

Visit our photo gallery to see our past events as documented by Caroline and our other volunteer photographers—we thank you all!

What We've Been Doing

Inaugural "From Far and Wide" Gala

On Saturday November 25, 2017 our first-ever fundraiser opened with a bang at the River Rock Theatre in Richmond, BC. Over 200 guests came to support us, including community leaders, City Councillors, MLAs, MPs and supporters from diverse cultural backgrounds. Following a strong multimedia presentation, our Honorary Advisor and Musqueam Elder Larry Grant gave a moving speech including a traditional welcome in hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓.

Stand-up comedian and CBC Laugh Out Loud host Ali Hassan from Toronto served as co-emcee along with PCHC-MoM’s very own, first intern, Eleanor Munk. Guests were treated to their witty, skilful banter as they led guests through the jam-packed, multicultural and educational entertainment of the evening. Many were bowled over by the dazzling Kebaya Heritage fashion show put together by Natasha Honey Morita, and the Royal Academy of Bhangra’s dynamic performance. Guests mingled comfortably with friends within the theatre and enjoyed the additional exhibit curated by Amador Astudillo and Winnie Cheung, which included two oral history projects (“LANSIA” and “Block by Block”), antique Cantonese opera costumes and a travelling collection of Beijing opera costumes.

The entire Gala programme and the diverse participants highlighted the rich cultural diversity of the peoples in Pacific Canada.

Co-chairs Richard Liu and George Ing are extremely grateful to the team that made our inaugural Gala so successful. Thanks to our sponsors, donors and guests, we reached our modest fundraising target. As a result, we have been able to set up a new, shared office (more below) and proceed to build an ongoing staff team to provide year-round programming and to support the Board in fulfilling their mandate.

We’ve received many questions about when the next Gala will take place and are pleased to announce that the Board will be assembling the team to plan for the next one in 2019. If you’d like to lend a hand or make any suggestions, please contact Richard or any of the Directors. In the meantime, enjoy the photos from 2017.

New Office Space

We are delighted to announce that we now have our first physical office space at Sun Wah Centre in the heart of Vancouver’s Chinatown (302-268 Keefer St).

We are excited to be part of a new cultural hub hosted by BC Artscape at Sun Wah Centre where we share an office with the Asian Canadian Writers’ Workshop and The Laurier Institution. We are deeply excited to be part of this vibrant, pulsing place made up of artists, cultural producers and community groups, and look forward to the many synergies and opportunities to come.

As we have only just moved in, we look forward to sharing more news and photos of our space with you soon. Make sure to follow our social media channels for updates.

Upcoming Events

explorASIAN Opening Ceremony

Join us at the launch of this year’s explorASIAN festival celebrating “Pan Asian Routes”. This free event will showcase Pan Asian performances and festival partner displays, including one by PCHC-MoM. We are delighted to be part of this annual festival organized by our long-standing community partner, the Vancouver Asian Heritage Month Society. Come meet or reconnect with some of our Directors and volunteers on this day.

Pro-D Opportunity: All Our Father's Relations (film and conversation)

PCHC-MoM is supporting the team behind the 60-minute award-winning film All Our Father’s Relations to bring this educational story into secondary classrooms. This story of a Musqueam-Chinese family reveals the shared struggles of migrants and Aboriginal peoples today and in the past. This Pro-D opportunity is targeted towards secondary social studies teachers across Richmond School District No. 38, but is open to all interested teachers.

All Our Father’s Relations: Exploring a New Learning Tool for Educators & Facilitators

As part of our aim to create intercultural dialogue and resources, PCHC-MoM is working with the team behind the award-winning documentary All Our Father’s Relations to host a public film screening and workshop targeted towards educators and facilitators. This discussion, together with a brochure we are creating to highlight the film’s themes in an educational context, will help educators determine how they can use All Our Father’s Relations as a new learning tool to discuss Indigenous and/or Asian content. This event is funded by a Multicultural Grant from the BC Government and is presented by PCHC-MoM as part of explorASIAN 2018.

PCHC-MoM Cantonese Opera Museum Bento: A Children's Learning Tool

A free, hands-on session on how to use the Cantonese Opera Museum Bento, a newly developed educational kit to help children discover the charms and joys of Cantonese opera, the most popular performing art in early Pacific Canada, which has remained vibrant and is now made increasingly accessible to Vancouver's non-Cantonese speakers. This session will be presented as part of PCHC-MoM’s program to animate the Richmond Museum’s current exhibit Our Journeys Here, during Doors Open Richmond (June 2-3), a city-wide celebration of heritage, culture and the arts.

Stay tuned to our website and social media channels for more details on the complete PCHC-MoM program with our partner the Richmond Museum during Doors Open.

Community Events

Official City Apology for the Historical Discrimination Against Chinese People

April 22 | 2:00 pm - 3:30 pm
Chinese Cultural Centre, 50 E Pender St

The formal apology from Vancouver City Council will be part of a larger Chinatown Culture Day taking place between 1 pm to 4 pm throughout Chinatown. Learn more.